Abstract Frequently, Electrical Overstress (EOS) is understood in a similar context like Electrostatic Discharge (ESD). However, when looking deeper, only 3-5% of EOS failure signatures are caused by ESD. The dominant root causes can be found on system level – often inaccessible for the device failure analyst. However, switching procedures and sometimes-hidden inductance loads are the unconsidered and undiscovered problem makers. This paper reviews and highlights these failure mechanisms.